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The coronavirus crises have forced the British Government and the UN climate body to postpone the next Climate Summit (COP26), initially scheduled for November 9-18 in Glasgow, until a date yet to be set in 2021.

The decision was made this Wednesday in a videoconference held by the UN chief for climate, Patricia Espinosa, with representatives of the regional blocs.

The announcement has been received with divided opinions by experts and environmental groups . Economist Nicholas Stern, author of the report on the economics of climate change, had asked Prime Minister Boris Johnson to resist pressure, arguing that postponement would inevitably mean the loss of "momentum" in recent months and indefinite delay in commitments made. in the Paris Agreement.

In similar terms, Janine Felson, deputy director of the Alliance of the Small Islands, expressed herself, stressing the importance of the climate plans that the signatory countries of the agreement should have updated, "to maintain the increase in temperatures by no more than 1 , 5 degrees. "

Greenpeace Executive Director John Sauven, however, had written to COP26 President Alok Sharma, expressly requesting the postponement of the summit, given the material impossibility of making the necessary bilateral efforts in the midst of the coronavirus crisis. " Postponing is different from canceling ", Sauven stressed in statements to The Guardian , recalling at the same time the serious situation in Italy, co-host of COP26.

Greenpeace has warned, however, that the response to the epidemic has to be "resilient to our health and climate," and has emphasized the need for "collective global action" comparable to that which has occurred in the face of epidemic.

" Postponing is the right decision : public health and safety must come first now," said Laurence Tubiana, CEO of the European Climate Foundation. "The UK Presidency and all governments should use this time to design resilient recovery and transition plans that consider climate, biodiversity, development and social justice in an integrated way."

"Diplomatic meetings can be postponed, but not the urgent need to take climate measures in 2020," said Christiana Figueres, the UN's chief climate change official. "Science tells us that emissions must peak this year if we want to limit warming to 1.5 degrees, and the Paris Agreement established COP26 as the time when all countries would increase their target for the next decade." .

COP26 had already started off on the wrong foot with the impeachment of first President Claire O'Neill. The coincidence with the last leg of the Brexit negotiations and the internal struggle between Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the Scottish Prime Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, also threatened to frustrate the possibilities of relative success.

Johson had even threatened to transfer the Glasgow summit to the ExCeL in London, now enabled as a field hospital in the face of the coronavirus crisis that has claimed 44,264 lives worldwide (with almost 900,000 confirmed cases).

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